Andy Capostagno RUGBY
The Super 12 reaches the halfway point this weekend with all four South African teams occupying the bottom half of the log. Thus far the thrilling rugby has come from the Hurricanes, Highlanders and Brumbies, while the Crusaders, champions of the past two years, have been ultra-professional and, at this distance at least, must be short- priced favourites for what the Americans call a three-peat.
It is that time of the tournament where early season excuses are of no value anymore. No use moaning about injuries and schedules, it’s put up or shut up. So where does South African rugby stand? On a Zimmer frame, if truth be told. The reputations of some of our finest Springboks are in tatters and, for once, there are precious few youngsters knocking at the door.
If the Tri-Nations were to begin next week Nick Mallett might well despair. Of the team which beat New Zealand in the third place play-off at last year’s World Cup, Percy Montgomery, Joost van der Westhuizen and Mark Andrews are injured, while Henry Honiball has retired. Breyton Paulse, Robbie Fleck and Cobus Visagie are trapped in a desperately uninspired Stormers team, while Krynauw Otto, Naka Drotske and Os du Randt are submerging in a dreadful Bulls team.
Yes, even Du Randt, the most dependable of Springboks, looks ill at ease. If the Test team were to be picked tomorrow, he would have to step aside for the one South African player who has consistently performed at a world class level in this Super 12, Ollie le Roux. The ever cheerful loose-head for the Sharks has thrown off the unwanted tag of “impact player” and, in the absence of Honiball, has emerged as the focal point of the team.
The Sharks had a bye last week and therein lies the one slim hope of a South African semi-finalist. Hugh Reece-Edwards’s men play the Bulls in Pretoria this weekend and then settle down to a blissful six successive games at King’s Park. In quick succession the Cats, Crusaders, Reds, Blues, Chiefs and Stormers will seek a way to win in Durban. If more than one of them arrives at a simple solution, the Sharks can kiss a semi-final spot goodbye.
The draw has been kind to the Sharks, a fact that might have seemed in doubt when they failed to secure more than a single point from their first three games. In addition, fine though their subsequent win in Sydney was, they will not be the only team to beat the Waratahs in their own backyard this season. And, while the management will try hard to inculcate happy memories of that final tour match, there will be many more times when the players wake up in a cold sweat remembering the 50- point drubbing they suffered at the hands of the Brumbies.
The Bulls could upset the apple cart on Saturday, as they did in 1998; when a 12-8 win at Loftus meant an away, rather than a home semi-final for the Sharks. That was one of only three games the Bulls won in 1998, last year they only managed one and, since reaching the semi-finals as Northern Transvaal in 1996, the Bulls have managed just seven wins in 37 games.
If the Bulls do win on Saturday it will mean victory for the lowest common denominator. For while the Stormers have tried to give the ball to Breyton Paulse and Pieter Rossouw in space, and the Sharks have attempted to get forwards running at backs, the Bulls and, to a lesser extent, the Cats have played the kind of sideways rugby that might have emerged if William Webb-Ellis had been a crab.
With a surfeit of possession against the Brumbies last week the Bulls managed one disputed try from a Jannie de Beer cross kick. That is to say that in order for the flyhalf to get the ball to the wing it was necessary for him to kick the ball, and even then the wing missed the ball and the try was actually scored by a loose forward who happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.
Against the Hurricanes the Cats had 70% of the ball, but in the last 15 minutes, with the New Zealanders down to 14 men, could not find a way to carry it over the line.
At one stage during that spell the Cats carried the ball through six phases into the Hurricanes’ 22 at which point fly-half Louis Koen kicked it away to an astonished looking Tana Umaga, who marked it with a grateful shrug.
Sadly it is brainless play such as Koen’s which exemplifies South African rugby at the moment. The fear of failure has been mentioned as a contributing factor, but it is more to do with a lack of ambition.
There is an institutionalised feel to the game plan which is reminiscent of the motto of the civil service: “Many things must be done, but nothing must be done for the first time.”
For match reports on the whistle and Andy Capostagno’s Monday morning assessment of all the weekend’s Super 12 action, see www.mg.co.za/sport